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Illinois has a law restricting the sale of certain unsafely designed handguns. This law generally prohibits a federally licensed firearms dealer, manufacturer, importer, or pawnbroker from manufacturing, selling or delivering unsafe handguns that have a barrel, slide, frame or receiver which is a die casting of zinc alloy or any other non-homogeneous metal that will melt or deform at a temperature of less than 800 degrees Fahrenheit to members of the public who do not hold firearm industry business licenses.1 This restriction does not apply to private/secondary sales (i.e., firearm transfers by people who are not licensed firearms dealers, manufacturers, importers, or pawnbrokers).2

Additionally, the Illinois Attorney General may have additional authority to regulate junk guns and to promulgate other firearm safety standards pursuant to the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act3

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  1. 720 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/24-3(A)(h).[]
  2. Id.[]
  3. 815 Ill. Comp. Stat. 505/1, et seq. For further details, view the report “The Illinois Attorney General’s Authority to Promulgate Handgun Safety Regulations Under the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act,” prepared by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (formerly “Legal Community Against Violence,” and the Firearms Law Center, in collaboration with Illinois Lawyers of Legal Community Against Violence, the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. and the MacArthur Justice Center in 2003.[]